Category Archives: Family Life

All about family.

Lauren’s next challenge

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Lauren out to take Mimi for her first ride since arriving home from the trainers. Notice big Bruno looking on from the rear.

Lauren and I have been sick the entire Thanksgiving holiday. Work; the basic feeding, vet care, stall cleaning all got done.but nothing extra was accomplished.  We slept 12-14 hours each night, fitfully, getting up to feed horses and dogs and going back to bed.  I only got the nursing home every other day.

It was a short-term solution.  Thankfully, we had already decided not to try to make the horse show this weekend with Feather.  Thankfully, we had help finishing the stalls and getting things ready so we could have five horses on the property again.  We didn’t have much energy to spare.

If you’ve read the details about our little place, we called it Six Meadow Farm, because in the beginning there were six acres and six horses.  But we have not had more than four on the property in a long time,

Lauren’s next challenge is to see if she has the stuff of Mimi’s trainer, Sarah, to organize, plan, and execute the training of three young horses while keeping Mickey fit, going to school and managing the household.  It is going to be tough.  Both Feather and Mimi will require at least four rides a week.  Bruno, until his hoof heals more will just get two to three rides.  Mickey will need the same if we plan to use him at all this next year.  There was a time when I could be counted on to flat (not jump) a couple of horses a week and in fact, I think the horses and I were better off for it.  Horses like variety and I would do long trots on the hay roads and other work outside the arena.  It kept their minds happy.  With all the demands of work, my mom and the just the hours spent commuting, I will not be good for much but an occasional weekend pick-up ride.  Ally is coming a couple of days a week and that should help as well but the major burden of the rides and schooling of these young horses will fall to Lauren.

We watched Sarah work Mimi last night.  Sarah told us Mimi did not like to work in the dark but when she has horses to work and the days are short, someone will get worked in the dark.  Sarah has award-winning horses because she does the work.  She does not take days off or short cuts.  She was nursing an upper respiratory infection yesterday like Lauren and I. 

Lauren is young.  She is tough.  She is disciplined.  I wish we had other friends that could come down more often and ride with her.  Facing the ring alone day after day is lonely.  Lauren is going to cut back her hours at school next semester to get these horses started.  She has a calendar and a plan. 

Horses are a business where the best laid plans can fall apart in an instant.  But these next few months should show Lauren if the horse business is what she wants from life.  While there are lots of songs about cowboys losing everything to follow the rodeo circuit there are not any (that I know of) about an equestrian sacrificing everything to ride the show circuit, but it is the same story.  Keep reading along and we will see how it goes.  She’s got three nice young horses ready to reach the next steps, they are the best she has ever had.  Let’s see what she turns them into.

Lauren headed out to saddle Mimi and Feather.

Happy Thanksgiving

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Our Thanksgiving crew, starting with me clockwise, Dodie, Rick (Luke’s parents, Jake-Luke’s brother with girl friend Christie then Lauren, Jake’s daughter Kayla, Jordyn, Granny Nanny, Ally, Kendyll, and Luke

I don’t know how many years it has been since I shared Thanksgiving with my mother, like maybe sometime in the ’90s back when my Aunt Nova did Thanksgivings.  Recent years, we have been here, and mom has been with Jim’s big extended family in Tucson.  I have been fighting strep throat and an upper respiratory infection so I have not had much time with mom the last few days.

Lauren, Jordyn and I got our share of the food done yesterday.  Lauren is  a good cook.  She makes homemade macaroni and cheese.  We used my mom’s old recipes for green bean casserole and pumpkin pies.  Ally and her extended family provided all else.

Ally’s in-laws, their son Jake and his girl friend Christie have become our family in Texas.  It was with great joy today to add my momma as the matriarch of the family while adding four-month old Kendyll as the baby of the family.  Life extending at both ends.  The food was great.  All of us have had some issues this year, some serious health things, a big move for mom, a new baby for Luke and Ally.  I think that all of us had tears in our eyes as we circled the table saying what we were thankful for this year.  The list was simple but endearing.  We are so blessed to have momma here now and have her with this us.  Dodie (Luke’s mom) has had an incredibly tough year with multiple health issues.  But she still compassionately listened to mom tell her stories of growing up in Oklahoma. 

It was a terrific day.  We got mom back for her after Thanksgiving nap.   Both Lauren were exhausted from the day and being sick.  We came home and watched the Texans go into overtime again!  I couldn’t yell-have no voice but again was thankful for the big finish and another one for win column.

We finally had to go do something with the horses.  We have not felt well enough to ride once this week.  We had planned to ride today but just were not up to it.  Maybe in December, we will get things on track again.  We had a rush trip to the vet yesterday to continue care on Bruno where Feather had kicked him Sunday.  The vet took one look at him and said in awe, “now, that is a big horse!”.  We got him fixed up and got some more antibiotics and medicine.  He will be fine.

Just before horse dinner time, we thought we would try Bruno on the lunge line to see how he was doing with his foot.  He looked really good.  We caught a picture of him at the trot that shows how huge his stride is.  This horse is really going to be able to cover some ground. 

Bruno looking good with Mickey and Feather watching from the gate.

I am grateful for many things, from our terrific weather, healthy family (pretty much), my momma being back in my life on a daily basis, my terrific family (here and in Denver) and my Taylor family that are now just regulars for all our holidays and having my wonderful animals safe and sound (mostly) out in my back yard.  These are all dreams come true for me.  It is overwhelming how good life can be and how our traditions have grown and expanded to be even better than ever before.

Hope your Thanksgiving day was blessed as mine.  I am thankful for all you who take time to read what I write each time.  You all are blessing as well.  You have given me a voice.  Thank you and God Bless each one you.

Horseback Riding to Get Fit

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The Taylor girls, Jordyn, Kendyll and Ally taking a photo break from their fitness routine. (I don’t think Kendyll did too much fitness work!)

Horseback riding is not the first thing you think of when you think of physical fitness regimes.  People run or swim or do spin classes to get fit. Seldom do we think about what it takes-physically- to ride a horse.  In fact, I cannot tell you the number of times that Lauren and I have argued with people in this town about horseback riding being a sport.  It started with her physical education department at her high school. 

Other school districts in the Houston area, acknowledged that horseback riding was a form of physical fitness and allowed students to do horseback riding as an offsite PE credit for their high school program.  Not in El Campo, Texas was that acceptable.  In fact, at the time Lauren had qualified for the USEF Emerging Athlete Program (EAP)- a national program led by former Olympic medalists and she was hoping to attend a college and qualify to ride on a NCAA Equestrian Team.  But the answer in El Campo was still no.  It may be a sport at colleges throughout the US but horseback riding was not a sport in little town Texas. I would challenge anyone who feels horseback riding is not something that requires athleticism and physical fitness to try to ride Mickey through a three-foot course.  Good luck with that!

One of my favorite examples of riding requiring physical fitness was when one of Dianne’s riders that had ridden successfully as a youth decided to return to the show ring as an adult.  John was a good and competent rider as a youth.  He was riding a strong thoroughbred named Dolan donated for Dianne’s use by Dr. Lynn Criner.  I remember John heading into the ring for his first round over fences.  His jacket didn’t quite button anymore (and whose idea was it to ride horses in a jacket and tie?).  Several years of smoking had reduced his lung power more than a little bit.  Dolan took off at a quick pace, galloping to each jump and clearing them easily.  After eight jumps, John headed out of the ring gasping for breath.  He had stayed with Dolan but he was breathing hard and his color was not so good.

By the time John completed his third round over fences, he said he wanted to die.  The jacket was completely unbuttoned, the tie was askew and John could have used oxygen.  Really.  It took a physically fit man to ride the big thoroughbred through his paces and John was not it.  He was not physically conditioned to go along for the ride he had taken.  I was vastly amused by John’s problems that day-but I could not have done any better.

Ally, four months post-baby delivery came out tonight to start her version of get fit while riding at Granny’s farm.  Granny was watching Kendyll and Ally was back in the saddle.  It was a windy and cool day but Ally still got in about 45 minutes of serious riding.  It is said that riding improves the core muscles (those often slack after baby delivery), it helps tone the inner and outer thighs, improves posture and cardio-vascular fitness.  It was fun to have all the girls (Lauren, Ally and Jo) saddled up and in the ring.  It has been too long. 

Still, there is little doubt that Ally will be walking carefully tomorrow.  Those muscles that have not been engaged in some time will be yelling out about how they feel.  Ask Ally if horseback riding requires physical fitness tomorrow, but stand back because she may come at you, swinging!

I may be on to something though and could start post-baby “recover your old body through horseback riding class”.  I will let you know if I can get any takers.  In the meantime, Ally will be back next week for another go with Feather.

Jo and Mick

Friday Afternoon

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Across the pasture–photo courtesy of Linda Potter-Potter Photography

It is another Friday.  We all look forward to the weekend, especially those of us doing the Monday through Friday grind.  I guess that applies if you are a worker or a student.  Years ago, I worked nights 7 pm- 7 am at the hospital, every other weekend.  That changed my perspective of weekends.  Then you could not wait to finally be off on Monday and really did not start to feel like a human being again until late Monday afternoon.

I look forward now to Friday afternoons.  I look forward to turning my little car towards home for that last commute of the week.  I especially am looking forward to this weekend because we get to turn the clocks back an hour.  I think the Sunday morning when we turn the clocks back ranks as my favorite holiday.  In the early dawn hours of Sunday morning, I can look at the clock and know I can have an extra hour of sleep.  I know come Sunday night I will go to bed earlier so it will actually be a shortened day for me. Yet, I look forward to it religiously.

Weekends are like that as well. I look forward to them for the break from routine and the time to catch up.  This weekend, Lauren and Blake are off to deer camp (now, isn’t that a stupid thing to call deer hunting-going to deer camp?  I mean really, I guess you are “camping” with the deer but since your plan is to kill them, that kind of takes away from the pleasant summer camp connotation).  Anyway, Lauren will be gone all weekend or at least until she gets tired of hanging out in the woods without satellite tv, so I am on my own.  I have some projects I want to do.  Like work on getting Mickey clipped, cleaned and ready for the show next weekend and clean out the tackroom.  I also want to get mom out to dinner or at least over on Sunday for a meal and the Texan’s game.

It will be nice to have some time to read, write and recharge but honestly I will miss my usual visit from Jordyn and having time to talk to Lauren.  It will actually be pretty quiet at the farm. 

It has been a long time since I have had two days and nights alone.  Mickey and I will go for a couple of long rides.  I will spend some quality time at Wal-Mart.  I also suspect my Facebook time will increase as well.  I expect to be ready for some company by Texan kick-off time Sunday.

Next Thursday we move Mickey to the Katy Equestrian Center for Zone 7 Finals.  We have prayed, wished and hoped to be making this trip and are extraordinarily blessed to actually be headed there.  Next weekend will be nuts, so it is nice to have this weekend to just be quiet.

Busy times!

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I will miss you, little one.

I started out Friday afternoon not with some much needed time off  but meeting Lauren at the orthopedic surgeon where she had taken my mother for her hip.  I was taking over the appointment wait.  I was hoping by the time I got there they would have completed the visit and she would be ready to go home. It was not going to work out that way.

Lauren left.  Mom and I waited some more.  There were at least five other people in the waiting room.  Her appointment was at 2:15 and we got sent to the exam room at 4:30.  Then we waited some more.  I am pretty sure mom had no idea where we were or what we were waiting for.  Finally, long after dinner had been served at her facility, Dr. Chau came in to see us.   He said there was some arthritis in the hip but it looked pretty good.  Then he started moving her leg around.  From the horrified expression on her face, it was obvious it hurt, a lot!  He showed me how swollen her knee was (we had just been focused on the hip).  He decided to give her an injection in the knee.  Wow, I have had my shoulder injected numerous times but I did not see the needle slide two inches into through my arm.  Don’t ever watch if you need this done-EVER! WOW!  It was now moving toward 6:00 and he wanted us to stay and see how she did with the shot.  She seemed to be moving better but hadn’t walked in ten days so her balance was all off.

I knew I would need to get her dinner.  There are not a lot of choices and I just wanted to go home.  I suggested we get McDonalds and go back to her room and eat.  First she asked, “What is McDonalds?”  then she asked, “can we get a drink here” and she did not mean diet coke.  She probably needed a drink after that shot.

We got her back to the facility, ate our McDonalds (she loved the chocolate shake) and I got her settled in for bed. 

Saturday we took Mimi, the pony, to Sarah’s for a month of training.  I am just too busy with work and my mom to really get this pony started.  I know Sarah will get her started right.  It was ironic though, everything that Feather did poorly (load, fly spray, tie), Mimi did well.  And everything Mimi did poorly (lunge, be ridden, be sweet) Feather did well.  The road trip with trailer took us a good four hours.

Lauren and I rode Feather and Mickey in the afternoon.  We are getting real close to the “A” show this weekend so Lauren wanted to ride Mickey.  It was real windy and Feather kept spooking at everything.  I was feeling pretty old by the time I headed out to my visit to mom.  I had received the news that my mom’s niece, Geneva had died.  I knew she was always close to Geneva and was worrying about how she would take the news.

When I got to the facility, Mom was in her wheelchair with her purse and a big blanket next to her.  She was wide-eyed and nervous.  She had heard that the center needed to be evacuated and that she needed to have something warm because it was going to be so cold.  First, it was over 90 degrees, second, we were not going anywhere.  I have rarely seen her as agitated as she was that day.  I felt so bad for her.  She was so confused and upset.  When I tried to tell her about Geneva-it went right past her.  I finally got her to the dining room and handed her off to the aides there.  Walking out, two ladies stopped me and asked me if I had heard that the Catholic parishioners were coming to attack them and would hurt them.  Apparently, everyone was drinking the same paranoid Kool-aid.  One lady even asked me to examine her little dog as the parishioner had already gotten him (not really).  I was exhausted by Saturday night.

Sunday saw us watching a lot of the USEF network waiting for Caitlyn to ride.  We did get out to meet Ally, Jordyn and Kendyll at a cafe in Needville for lunch.  Lauren and I picked up mom and she was like a new person.  She enjoyed the drive and great food.  Her favorite was the homemade peach cobbler with ice cream.

We talked about Geneva and she told me how much she had loved her and enjoyed being with her over the years.  She has lots of other nieces and nephews who are still alive, but Geneva was more the age of her sisters and they all used to run together when she was in Oklahoma.

After we got home, we watched some more rounds in Harrisburg (including Caitie’s) and then Lauren went off to her boyfriend’s for the evening.  I was looking forward to the undefeated Texans beating Green Bay.  Well, I gave up on that after the first quarter. 

I killed my favorite kitten this morning.  It was up in my car and dropped out of the engine as I drove off in the dark.  I u-turned to go back but she was lying helpless on the road-I had run over her.  I took her back to the house and settled her in blankets.  Lauren told me she was dead by 7:00 am when she checked on her. I had really loved this little one-I will miss her.

What I have Learned from my Kid’s Sports

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Amber at the top, Ally ready to hit and Lauren-my girls at the ball field.

I have been a mother for over 30 years.  With three daughters spread out in age over 12 years, I have seen them pursue some of the same interests and some unique. 

My oldest daughter Amber, well, what can I say?  I was younger, more willing to keep up with crazy practice schedules and her dad was a good athlete in his own right.  He was willing to coach her teams and did a great job of seeing Amber was exposed to multiple sports while encouraging her to practice and play hard.  My dad had been a great athlete and we hoped Amber had inherited some of his skills.  Amber played (and her dad coached her) on an all-boys soccer team until she was 12.  Likewise, she played boy’s Little League until about the same age before moving to girl’s fast-pitch softball.

Amber ended up playing Junior Olympic Fast Pitch softball.  We were in Florida at the time and she got to play a lot of international ball.  At one time I believe they were  ranked 13th in the world.

Ally came along when we were deep in fast pitch fever.  When her dad found out she was a lefty-he was thrilled.  Nothing like a good left-handed pitcher.  Ally played some ball and soccer but really rated running track.  She won several City and County awards.  One of my favorite memories was of her and I running a 5K across the Melbourne Causeway running toward the Atlantic Ocean when she was only ten-years old.  Ally got into the horseback riding about that time as well.  She showed 4H and local shows with her friends from Wickham Park.  Many of whom, are still dear friends all these years later.

In Texas, Ally did competitive cheerleading on a traveling team.  I didn’t like it as much as horseback riding competitions but applauded how hard the team worked and how tough the competition was in competitive cheer.

Lauren never really got to do much of the organized sports like softball or soccer.  Divorce was disrupting a lot of things then and Lauren got swept along in riding horses.  She had her first horse at age six in Florida and has been riding ever since.

Here are some things I learned that I would have never known without sports in my kid’s life:

  • Ball parks are a great place to raise small children-Lauren pretty much grew up at the Melbourne and Palm Bay ball fields.  While Hilary Clinton said it takes a village to raise a child, in her case it took a ball team and their families. Someone was always on hand to help out.
  • With that said, in those Florida years, the team was our family.  We spent Thanksgivings and other holidays with teammember families.  To this day, the Bergstressers are close friends, attending Amber and Ally’s weddings.
  • The cheerleading taught me how to style and french braid hair, skills I still use today (okay, so maybe I am braiding the horse’s tail, but still).  I learned a lot about tumbling and choreography and the hours spent making something look simple that was quite complex.
  • I learned a lot of new things when Ally started 4H with the horses and even more when Lauren went the English route a few years later.  I continue to learn more every day about this difficult and demanding sport.
  • Our horse show family here has expanded over the years.  My dearest friends here in Houston are my horse show friends.

The biggest thing I learned from my daughter’s sport activities is that all my children are tougher, stronger and more determined than I ever could have been.  Each one of them has taught me the meaning of courage and perseverance.  I am so proud of each of them.  I can’t wait to see what sport roads my grandchildren go down.  I will be cheering them along.  Count on it.

Outings

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Today found Lauren  and Mickey off to Dev’s for the final tune-up before next week’s show.  They had a good lesson, in fact, I believe Dev may have said Mickey was as good as he has ever looked.  Wow.  Not where I thought we would be after our summer off work.  I am very pleased.

Today found me taking my mother to the nail salon.  She had “fake” nails on and has had them (not the same ones) for many years.  I have needed to get them off of her but have not been able to get her to the salon.  I was frightened about what we would find under the “fake” nails.  And not to be too graphic but I am unclear if my mom has had a pedicure since leaving Tucson last March.  I was not going to take that on and none of my daughters were volunteering.

The trip to the nail salon was a huge success with newly painted hot pink toes and finger nails.  I am pretty sure she kissed the nail girl goodbye.

Successful outings all around.

Families

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The Davis Family last October-from me clockwise-Ally, Jordyn, Luke, Riley, Amber, Lexi, Ryan, Blake and Lauren

Families are built day by day, year by year with actions, words and inevitably with memories.  In the beginning, as babies then as children, teens and young adults in many ways we are formed and molded by our home lives.  Our parents, friends and environment all have an impact on us. 

No one has a perfect life and many come from horrible situations and manage to overcome them.  We all know stories of people who have risen from nothing to be successful or brilliant. 

While I understand I have been very fortunate, in the home in which I was raised, to the opportunities for education, and the support I always received, whether I deserved it or not, I have battled many issues in my life. 

This month marks 14 years since I separated from my now ex-husband.  We are both better off without the other.  My children perhaps would have been better off in a two-parent home but I could not give that to them.  As a single mother, I have raised three girls, now 30, 24 and 19 years of age.  I don’t know who had it the worst, the oldest one who had some great memories of two supportive parents, the middle child who had some solid years as a part of a family or my youngest who has little memory of ever having a ‘real’ family.  Is it better to have known a family and lose it or never to have known it at all?  I know there were/are disadvantages to the lives of all my children.

Life is a funny thing.  While the years are moving along, we accept the status quo and complain about the weather, our job or politics.  Retrospectively, it is easy to compartmentalize certain periods of our lives, like when the kids were little, or when we lived in this house or that city. 

Please forgive my ramblings.  I continue to try to make sense of the Alzheimer world my mother lives in now.  I have been forced into introspection  about what is family, who supports whom, what are the roles, how do we manage when the roles change. 

In an instant, with an unintended action, bad memories can flood us. We are returned to a time when we were all different people.  It is so easy to allow fighting to hurt one of our family members senselessly.  It is hard to regain the ground we took years to level.  A place where we all are safe and secure in the love of one another.

Families are like that, you know, built of feathers and molded without cement.  They can blown apart by strong north wind.  But I hope each time the wind settles, the family will come back again, stronger.  The rain will stop and hopefully what is left is shiny and new and not too badly eroded away. 

I hope my family continues to build with our new roles and love to strengthen our ties.

Habits

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Kena and Lula have a habit of sleeping after dinner.

They say it takes three weeks to build a new habit.  I have pondered this in many situations over the years.  Like when I decided to quit eating red meat.  It was hard but after three weeks, it really didn’t matter. Of course, I just managed to do this for Lent, but still. Then there was when I started swimming laps again, it was so hard to get myself to the pool but  after going twice a week for three weeks it just kicked in.  It became easier.  It became a habit. 

I have now had my mom here for over three weeks.  My schedule and routine (of which I am little obsessive compulsive) had to change.  It was really hard for me.  To be able to get to my mom’s every day I could-which I have now decided is every day but Tuesdays (Lauren goes on Tuesdays) and at the best time for her and I (the hour right before dinner), I had to adjust my work hours (thank goodness for the ability to do so).  But I had the most difficulty with adjusting my sleep schedule so that I got up an hour earlier each day.  I now get up at 4:00 am.  Yes, every day because horses are creatures of habit and creatures of habit with bad stomachs that act up when not treated in a routine manner. So, I feed them and the rest of the animals at the same time every morning.   I do go back to sleep on the weekends-I am not crazy.

All and all, the new routine is working fine.  I actually wake up on my own, no alarms, at the appointed hour.  My internal clock has re-set.  The day moves along quickly and I am usually at my mom’s close to 4:00 pm.  It gives her something to count on that I will come most days before her dinner.  We can visit and then I can walk her to dinner being sure she is set up in her spot in the dining room.

We have a new routine at the barn as well with Mickey back in the work rotation.  On the days Lauren has school, we ride in the evening.  Saddling up everyone but Kid.  She works one horse and I, the other.  Whichever one I ride Lauren will get on at the end and do a little more fast work or jumping.  Then I get Mimi going, doing some ground work.  Some man pulled off the road in his truck last night and watched us work the horses.  We got that a lot when we first moved to our little farm.  I could just imagine the conversations in those trucks.  “Hey, have you seen them jumping horses?”  “Isn’t that something!” 

Last night it was probably perplexing to the watcher, as I was lunging Mimi, moving her around in a circle at a walk and a trot. I was really pushing her, trying to get her to break into a canter.  I am sure I was quite comical as viewed from the road.  I had my whip in one hand, the lunge line in the other and was walking along behind the pony urging her forward.  When the horse gets good at this, (as my old boy Cupid was) you could stand still in the center of the circle and the horse would walk, trot and canter at your bidding.  Mimi and I are not even close to that kind of effortless work.  I think I get as much exercise as she does.  As I pushed her along to try to get her moving faster, I had to move faster as well.  It was successful, she cantered for the first time, but I got dizzy-going round in circles and a real workout.

The horses, just like me, are getting used to the new routine.  For Feather and the Mimi, getting them to understand that there is work to be done most days, is important.  Some days we do not get much further than saddling and have them stand in the arena but it is all part of their education and I think their acceptance of work. Spontaneity is not my best attribute.  In three weeks, lacking any vet decreeing otherwise, Mickey will head back to the show ring.  We will see if everyone is settled in the routine by then.  I can’t wait to see how far little Mimi has come.

Nothing special but it was!

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It was a good weekend at Six Meadow Farm maybe not because we did anything special but because we did not.  It was a weekend for chores and horses and family.

Friday I got momma to the doctor for the first time in Texas and she was pronounced healthy and doing well except for needing to eat a little more.  We can work on that.    Then I picked up Jordyn for a sleepover.  I don’t often express it, but am so grateful and humbled to be able to share my life with my grandchildren.  I look forward to Jo’s visit all week-long. 

Friday night, Jordyn was determined to ride the new pony Mimi.  It had not worked out the week before with schedules so we were going to do it first thing this week.  Lauren and I saddled up Mimi, Mickey and Feather with Jordyn knowledgeably helping brush and groom. All the horses were a little fresh and I was skeptical about letting Jo get on Mimi.  Remember, this is a young, and for all intents and purposes, unbroken horse.  Mimi also has a history of dropping her riders to the ground.  But Jordyn was determined.  I was determined to hold on to Mimi no matter what.  We went to the mounting block and Jo climbed aboard.  For a moment, I thought we might be in trouble and then Mimi seemed to make her mind up that she would cooperate with Jordyn.  So, off we went.  Mimi was a trooper.  Jordyn was very proud of herself.  It was a little inspiring to watch them (or would be if Jo had any idea how fast Mimi could have put her on the ground).

After that, Jo rode (sat on while we walked around) both Mickey and Feather.  Big stuff.  Mickey and Feather worked well for Lauren.

My email pinged as we went in with word from University of California that Mickey does not have the Impressive disease-he is HYPP/NN.  Amazing news.  I am so grateful that we will not have to fight the HYPP battle.

Saturday we went to the Equestrian Center to take a saddle to be checked, take some shots for Snowboy (Dev will give later) and to watch a few rounds of the show.  It felt odd not to be able to be there with Mickey.  Hopefully, he will be back soon.  The high point for Jordyn was to be able to see and then meet part of the family that is related to Harry DeLeyer the owner of Snowman, for whom the book the Eighty Dollar Champion was written.  Snowman, The Cinderella Horse, (a children’s book about the same horse) is Jo’s favorite book.  She studiously shook hands with young AJ DeLeyer and seemed a little in awe.  AJ told us his grandfather would be coming to Houston in January to do a motivational speech.  Count the Davis’ in-I would love to meet this man who won the national championship on a horse he bought from the butcher for $80.

Later Lauren and I visited Nanny.  She was so excited to see us.  I just want to go to see her face light up.

We rode Mickey and Feather out on the hay road.  I don’t want to jinx myself but he did not cough once.  We had several good long trots.  It was a beautiful evening. 

Really glad I did not walk through this on my way to feed this morning!

This morning we got up to heavy fog with sun starting to peek through.  Nature had been busy overnight spinning webs that shone in the morning light. 

Today, as we started getting the horses ready to ride, everyone was acting goofy.  Feather has never done well with tying but today she reared multiple times and was just acting dumb.  Mickey and Mimi were not incredibly agreeable either.   I rode Feather (who is much easier to ride since all Dev’s and Lauren’s work).  We picked up the right lead (her tough one) the first time!  Lauren had a good solid ride on Mickey and the coughing was minimal.  Bravo!

We rounded out the morning with Lauren getting on Mimi and taking her on her first trot.  Mimi is doing very well.

I went and picked up my mom and she came to watch her Broncos play my Texans.  We figured out she had lived over 50 years in Denver so she was cheering on Denver as I cheered for the Texans.  Texans won-yeah!  Denver needs to knock off the whole trying to kill our quarterback thing.

I made an old recipe of my sister’s that mom seemed to really enjoy.  It was a nice change to have a good Sunday dinner.  Might want to make it our new traditions.  So good have her here, in my life.